Yet Another Reason Paul Azinger Won't Be Ryder Cup Captain Again: Tragicomic Twitter Tiff No. 1,032!

I'm not entirely sure what the context was or care but something to do with Sunday's jump from space by Felix Baumgartner

But I do think this could be just the kind of thing that makes a David Toms Captaincy appealing to the PGA of America.

This apparently has been patched up, but was precipitated by this ranting and raving. Such leadership!

Deadspin previously noted one of Azinger's raging stream of Tweets. And ESPN reprimanded him previously for a Tweet violating company policy.

Comments

[Simon]

HHHa. AZinger couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag

[D. maculata]

He was a enterprising punk in Sarasota / Bradenton, FL when he was a kid. Made a career out fleecing senior citizens at the Bobby Jones muni.

[Rohan]

I liked how he shut one guy up by suggesting he use his thumbs to suck on instead of tweeting him!

[rfiling]

It is interesting to follow Paul Azinger. You feel some admiration for his being prepared to wear his political heart on his sleeve but on the other hand, most of his followers must be golf fans so it seems a bit out of place when he promotes right wing thinking so actively.

[Ace]

And as we all know, ESPN is a paragon of consistent enforcement of company policy.

[chicago pt]

go do something worthwhile like charity work zinger

[Torr Eckman]

Never understood why people who follow him on Twitter complain about him so much. If you don't like him or his tweets, why follow?

[Charlie]

This is the reason i love azinger and he's a must follow. hard to beat his insults of Obama. Really wish he was debate moderator instead of the liberal wimps they have now haha

[The Big K]

I follow Zinger on Twitter because I enjoy the contrast between his application of critical thinking skills to golf commentary and his absolute lack of application of them to politics.

[Press Agent]

@ Torr, because people love to watch a train wreck.

[Mo]

That's exactly why he was a great Ryder Cup captain, he's not afraid of a fist fight.

[Jim]

"I'm not entirely sure what the context was or care"

That tells me all I need to know.

You didn't follow the conversation from the beginning, which many of us did.

Since you have a screenshot of the DMs from @danfromdc, you clearly contacted him, or he contacted you. Did you contact Paul Azinger for comment??

I'll just cancel my subscriptions to all Golf Digest related products. That way I don't have to feel like I'm supporting yellow "golf journalism."

[Claude]

The difference between the conservatives I knew as a kid and what we see today is so vast.

[Geoff]

Jim,
All of the above is publicly viewable on Twitter. I wasn't contacted by @danfromdc and don't know who he is. I was tipped by another site reader who thought Azinger's behavior was far more shocking than the LPGAers going at it and I would agree.

As for interviewing Paul, what am going to ask him? Why are you wanting to fight people ? Do you think it's an example of leadership to call people unkind names?

Sorry to see you go, you'll miss a lot of great writing!

[GolfFan]

Is it coincidence that Twitter contains the word "Twit"?

Methinks not.

[Simon]

Azinger is boring that why I would never want to follow Mr Boring on Twits so who cares what he says or thinks leave him alone to talk to himself on Twits

[Pasaplayer]

Right wing rage is without a doubt more entertaining than left wing angst. Don't you agree, Jim? Jim?

[Average Golfer]

Zinger should stick to golf, but it's well within his rights to pontificate on any subject he chooses.

[Amen Coroner]

Its funny what some people think they have is FU money. If Azinger were to actually lose his TV gig over something like this I wonder if he'd get more abrasive or less?

[DTF]

GolfFan....good one! Seems like every notable golfer with a twitter account steps in it at some point, just a matter of when. Can't figure out why they all do it in the first place. Derek Jeter seems to get on just fine without a twitter account...

[johnnnycz]

GolfFan: +1

Yup...anything with the word "twit" as it's root should be a warning sign. I can just imagine some of the initial informal marketing meetings when the service first took off:

Marketing peon: " Hey boss...did you read that last twit I sent you? Funny eh? Chuck Norris Jokes never die!"
Marketing BigWig: "NO! Stop saying that...we can't ever call em "twits" for short again, do you understand me?....are you crazy using a word like that???
M P: "Oh...well what should we call em then?"
M B-W: "Hmmm...I know I know, it's a toughie...well lets just change a letter and call em...uhhh...errr..."tweets" instead...YEAH that's it...that way it rhymes with 'sweet' or whatever"
M P: "Uh...OK boss...i gotta go work on my px reports 'kay?"

[Geno]

No confidence the USA will ever win another Ryder Cup.